The New Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

By: Paul Murano – Jun, 2010

Last month marked one of the darkest days in human history. Most people will not recognize it as such, for it has very quickly become part of the fabric of society. That day was May 9, 1960, the 50th birthday of “the pill”. The first irony here is that this birthday was meant to prevent birthdays. The second is that the 50th birthday of this pill whose aim is to prevent motherhood landed on Mother’s Day. The bottom line is the birth control pill has popularized contraception and has changed the world as a result.

Does this sound overly dramatic?

Let’s take a quick look at recent American history. Within eight years the following progression of Supreme Court decisions were made in the name of privacy: In 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut legalized contraceptives for married couples, in 1972 Eisenstadt v. Baird legalized them for unmarried people, and in 1973 Roe v. Wade legalized abortion.

Every modern society that has accepted abortion has first accepted contraception as its gateway; for the contraceptive mentality makes pregnancy a condition to be “protected” from, and a child a potential “mistake”. Since then many millions of preborn Americans have died from surgical and chemical means of “fixing” this mistake. (Regarding the latter, when their contraceptive mechanism fails so-called contraceptives like “the pill” cause early abortion without the woman ever knowing it by hormones making it impossible for the tiny human to attach himself to his mother’s uterine wall.)

Women now average 1.7 children while they used to average around four. If contraception was popularized a little earlier half of us reading this would not exist. Reflect on that. Illegal immigration has become a makeshift solution for replacing the class of American workers that normally accept cheap wages (teens). Social security and health care systems that cannot be sustained by the ratio of younger workers to retirees add to the likelihood of legalized euthanasia and death panels deciding when care for elderly persons will no longer be cost-effective.

What it has done to the family has also been devastating. The popularization of contraception has created a post-1960’s premarital “relationship” culture, still with us today, that weakens marriage by compromising the uniqueness of the bond and the exclusive covenantal character of the one-flesh union. Marriage has become just another “relationship” for many, based on convenience or fear of remaining childless. Parents of high school and college girls now “protect” their daughters by putting them on the pill to keep hope alive for a lucrative career. Not only is this the prescription for a broken heart and a tainted future marriage, but in virtually all pre-pill and non-pill societies it would be seen as abusively compromising their dignity for the sake of money; a disgrace for those meant to be protecting their daughter’s virtue and integrity. And contraception within marriage creates not only a physical barrier between spouses but also a psychological and spiritual one. Women often rightly sense they’re being used rather than loved. It has contributed to the high pill-era divorce rate; yet, while 50% of marriages end in divorce only 1% that practice Natural Family Planning do. With its lingering effect of hormones polluting their body ecology, prolonged use of the pill has been a cause of heart wrenching sterility in women.

As mentioned above the popularization of contraception created the contraception mentality that separates sex from babies, love from life, and lays down the rationale not only for abortion but for the perverted use of the sexual faculty: if sex is essentially separated from baby-making then acts relating to homosexuality, masturbation, pedophilia, pornography, adultery, fornication, and even bestiality can be rationalized. And they have been – one by one. With the slippery slope that began with contraception all but two have become culturally accepted, so far.

Finally, the west is committing suicide. As the Russian Solzhenitsyn once said, “The west has lost its will to live.” The contraception era has seen Europe and North America depopulate at an alarming rate, making demographers fear that both will lose their identities within a relatively short period. We see it already occurring with the great influx of Arab peoples into Europe and Hispanics into the U.S., necessary for keeping their economies afloat. It may not be too long before the U.S. speaks Spanish and Europe is under Sharia law, for both immigrant populations are still reproducing at pre-pill western rates.

So happy birthday to a pill that has denigrated marriage; promoted promiscuity, a pornography industry second to oil companies in profit, a 50 % divorce rate, a rationale for same-sex marriage, a rapid depopulation, and a civilization that has lost its will to live. Like blind sheep we flocked to consume the new fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for the past 50 years in the name of women’s liberation and sexual freedom. With the original fruit God warned, “If you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” Out of the same prideful disobedience to be our own gods we are today bringing about the fulfillment of that end by consuming the new forbidden fruit of our age, the birth control pill.

Paul Murano taught theology and philosophy at Assumption College and Northshore Com. College. He is also a co-host of The Paying Attention! radio program on WCAP and Host “Beneath the Surface” on Burlington Cable Access. You can E-mail Paul at PJDM@aol.com

Paul Murano teaches philosophy at North Shore Community College and theology at the College of Saint Mary Magdalen. He is host of Beneath the Surface television show at Burlington Cable Access TV and is co-host of the Paying Attention! radio program. Paul is also chairman of Heartbeat Pregnancy Help center in Burlington and is a singer/songwriter/musician.